Crowdfunding: Kickstarter

The Manhattan Project: Energy Empire

From the ashes of war, nations rise to power in the atomic age. Each player takes control of a nation struggling for power in the latter part of the 20th century. They build up their nation’s industry, commerce, and government by acquiring resources, building structures, and tapping sources of energy. The price of oil is going up, and nuclear energy is the wave of the future. The Manhattan Project: Energy Empire is set in the same "universe" as The Manhattan Project, but it's a standalone game, not an expansion.

The major threat in Energy Empire is not war, but uncertain global impacts, that result from side effects of industrialization and pollution. Many actions come with a cost. So, as nations become more industrious, they also increase the amount of pollution in the environment. Careful use of science can mitigate the harmful effects of industry, and can also help avert global crises.

Energy Empire uses worker placement, tableau-building, and resource management mechanics. On each turn, a player can choose to either work or generate. On a work turn, a player plays a single worker on the main board, then uses workers and energy to activate cards in their tableau. Players may spend energy to use an occupied space on the main board, so no spaces are ever completely blocked. On a generate turn, players get to renew their supply of energy by rolling "energy dice" that represent nuclear, coal, oil, solar, and other forms of energy.

12 Days

The holiday-themed 12 Days takes the familiar "Twelve Days of Christmas" song and twists it into a quick-playing card game. Over twelve rounds, players try to re-gift unpopular cards while keeping cards that are strong enough to win the day, while also keeping a careful eye for bonus scoring at the end of the game.

The gift deck consists of eighty cards: one partridge in a pear tree, two turtle doves, and so on up to twelve drummers drumming, as well as one card each for Mr. and Mrs. Claus. Shuffle this deck, then deal each player twelve cards. Each round a new holiday card is up for grabs, with the cards ranked from 1 to 12 and being worth 1-12 points. In a round, a player:

Gifts a present to the player to his left,
Opens presents and tries to win the day with the best present, and
Buys a new gift to refill his hand.

More specifically, all players simultaneously pass one face-down gift card to their left-hand neighbor. Then everyone chooses one gift card in hand and reveals them simultaneously. Whoever plays the lowest gift card wins that round's holiday card; in the event of a tie for lowest, with the Clauses counting as zero, then the next lowest card wins. Each player then draws one card to bring their hand back to twelve cards.

After twelve rounds, players score points for each holiday card they've collected. In addition, whoever holds the most gift cards for each rank scores as many points as that rank, with all tied players scoring in the event of a tie. Whoever has the most points wins. Happy holidays!

How Am I Weird

How Am I Weird is a simple, fun party game to play with family and friends, in a group of 3 - 10. There are LIFE cards, COMEBACK cards and blank WEIRDO cards. LIFE cards present situations, sometimes awkward or embarrassing, sometimes annoying or familiar. COMEBACK cards present responses that are weird and wonderful. One person is nominated the Big Weird Chief, and the rest of the players each take 8 COMEBACK cards and one blank WEIRDO card. The Big Weird Chief reads a LIFE card. Each player chooses the weirdest and funniest COMEBACK response, or comes up with their own answer using their WEIRDO card! The person who gives the weirdest and funniest answer wins that round. At the end of the game, the player who has won the most rounds wins the game, and becomes ruler of the universe. Then you should WEAR THE CROWN!

—description from the publisher

Genotype: A Mendelian Genetics Game

Gregor Mendel is the 19th Century Augustinian Friar credited with the discovery of modern genetics. In Genotype, you play as his assistants, competing to collect experimental data on pea plants by trying to control how the plants inherit key Traits from their parents: seed shape, flower color, stem color, and plant height. The observable Traits of a Pea Plant (its Phenotype) are determined by its genetic makeup (its Genotype). The relationship between Genotype and Phenotype and the nature of genetic inheritance are at the heart of Genotype: A Mendelian Genetics Game.

During the game, players get Pea Plant Cards which show a set of Phenotype Traits they hope to produce and collect (such as pink flowers and tall height) in order to score points. Each round, Dice are rolled to represent Plant breeding, which may result in the Traits players are looking for. After the Dice Roll, players take turns drafting Dice towards completing their Pea Plant Cards or advancing their Research. The Traits produced during the Dice Roll come through the science of Punnett Squares, which show how the parent genes combine, one from each parent plant. By changing the genes of these parent plants, players can influence the likelihood of rolling the Traits they need. The completion of Pea Plant Cards via the Dice Draft is the main way players score points.

Each round consists of 3 phases: Worker Placement, Dice Drafting, and Upgrades.
1) During Worker Placement, players take actions to get more Plant Cards, change the genes of a parent plant, Garden, Research, stake Phenotype claims, gather new Tools, or even position themselves ahead of other players for the Dice Drafting Phase in a couple of ways.
2) Dice Drafting features a couple of interest steps, including the possibility to get first pick of dice, but only for one type of Trait (like plant height), or the possibility to get a pick of any dice, but only after those first picks have happened. De Novo Mutation Dice allow players to change the Trait of other Dice or gain additional Research.
3) The Upgrades phase lets players spend their Research to gain upgrades that let them work on more Plant Cards, draft more Dice each round, or gain additional Workers to be used during the Worker Placement Phase of each round.

Players work to match their Pea Plant Cards to the outcome of the Dice Draft and complete the cards for points. If they've placed a Phenotype marker, they will earn bonus points for every completed card that matches their claim. At the end of 5 rounds, the player with the most points wins.

-description from designer

Mercado de Lisboa

Modern day markets offers to their visitors various kind of stands, restaurants, and services.

In Mercado de Lisboa, players buy stands in the market, open new businesses that influence those stands, and bring customers to them.

Mercado de Lisboa is a thinky filler title, a tile-placement game based upon the Lisboa city-building system in which players pay money to own stands in the market, open restaurants next to them to improve their profit and bring in customers that earn money for players with matching stands. Mercado de Lisboa is a fast-paced game, very straightforward and easy to learn rules with deep tactical choices.